


chasing behind smoke

by Lire_Casander



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, F/M, M/M, Mentions of Blood and Torture, Toolshed scene - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23595001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lire_Casander/pseuds/Lire_Casander
Summary: Sir Alexander Manes never thought he would end up fighting dragons for his brother.
Relationships: Jenna Cameron/Kyle Valenti, Max Evans/Liz Ortecho (mentioned), Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 17
Kudos: 67
Collections: Time After Time: A Roswell New Mexico Alternate Era AU Event, there will always be an us (in every world in every story)





	chasing behind smoke

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostin_space](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostin_space/gifts).



> Written for the [Time After Time Event](https://alterarnm.tumblr.com/) over a Tumblr, **Day 1: pre-1900s**.
> 
> Prompt given by [spaceskam](https://spaceskam.tumblr.com/): **Knight prompt - a knight seeks to free the captive prince and deliver him to the throne**
> 
> Title is a translation from _Lo contrario de ninguno_ by Despistaos. Beta'ed by [whitneylj01](https://whitneylj01.tumblr.com/)

He’s twisting and turning in his sleep, just like almost every other night since that fateful day when his whole life got upended. He can see the blood, hear the nail, feel the copper in his mouth. There are scars throughout his body that tell the tale of battering, but they also speak of what it felt like, to be loved even just that once.

Whenever he closes his eyes, he sees Michael, all young and pristine and happy, laughing up at him while worshipping his body. He sees those eyes roaming over his own body. He hears that voice, repeating over and over the words that they’ve told each other uncountable times. But he also hears the groans and the cries and the noises that bones breaking make under the pressure exerted on too young hands — too inexperienced, too pink, too _naïve_ — and he can’t take it anymore.

He opens his eyes and turns to his side, the horror of his past catching up with him, as he throws up.

* * *

Alex flexes his fingers around the sword heʼs holding out for his older brother. The handle is richly ornate, as expected in a sword belonging to one of the brave Dukes of Manes. He refrains from sighing, remembering what happened the last time he was caught doing such an unmanly thing. 

His whole body is still sore from the exercise his father put him through so he could prove he isn’t the disgrace he seems so keen on being. Widower Duke of Manesʼ words, not Alex’s. 

Flint lets out a dignified huff — manly, Alex’s mind supplies — and grabs the sword too forcefully, yanking it from Alex’s hands. 

“You’re not even fit to be my squire,” he spits, taking the sword and twirling it effortlessly in a myriad of movements that have Alex dizzy for a second. “You canʼt even give me a sword in a proper manner, Alexander.” 

Alex bites his tongue so he doesn’t say what heʼs really thinking — all the words that want to spill out of his throat, hurtful and venomous and _true_. Instead, he bites the inside of his cheek until he can feel the iron taste of blood. 

“Go with the others,” Flint dismisses him, gesturing toward the general direction of the rest of the servants and peasants that have followed them in their quest. Alex nods curtly. 

“Yes, sir,” he replies, looking at the ground and retreating in what he hopes is a respectful way. He doesn’t want to give his brother a reason to snitch to his father, and he certainly doesn’t want to give his father a reason to punish him even further. 

He knows what happens when his father and older brothers arenʼt happy with him, and he doesn’t want a reenactment of the first time he dared to tell them that heʼd rather be called Alex. 

Going to war for a King he didn’t believe in and losing half of his right leg had been quite a lesson to learn about how to be properly named. 

When Alex reaches the tents, there’s ruckus and so much noise that he wants to scream. But he knows he canʼt escape when Kyle Valenti, the son of the head of his fatherʼs personal guard, throws an arm around his shoulders and pulls him into the circles where several men are entertaining a heated conversation. 

“I bet you can help us with this,” Kyle tells him, pushing him toward the rest of the men. 

“Iʼm pretty sure I canʼt,” Alex retaliates, but Kyle is already forcing him to sit down. “I really want to rest, tomorrowʼs going to be a trying day.” 

“Is it true, then?” one of the men says, voice pitched down an octave. Alex is almost certain that this Jay Cameron isn’t a man at all — what with the voice always raspy and dropping, and the insistence in always being left alone while at night — but he isn’t going to say anything. The Lord knows that he isn’t judging if this Cameron turns out to be a brave woman wanting to fight for her King. 

“Is what true?” he asks back. He doesn’t want to spill the beans on the rescue from tomorrow, when heʼll do all the work of saving the helpless princess on top of a tower and Flint will take all the credit for it. 

“Weʼre going to try and defeat the dragon guarding the Black Tower where Princess Isobel has been captive since she turned eighteen,” another man says. Alex shakes his head. 

“Sir Flint wonʼt discuss his plans with me,” Alex explains. It’s impossible for anyone outside the Manes family to understand the intricacies of their relationships — how itʼs always been Flint and Greg and Harlan against him, how theyʼve always sought their fatherʼs approval and love within the outskirts of whatever love was left when their mother died. Alex has always been at a disadvantage, being younger, being _different_. 

Thatʼs why heʼs kept under wraps that he is, in fact, the younger of the Manes men. 

He isn’t about to disclose his familyʼs interactions to strangers. He’s learned his lesson — trusting people he shouldn’t have with his secrets ended up with him beaten to a pulp in the fighting room, the place where sparring took a different meaning during his growing up years. He hasnʼt even told Kyle, his closest friend in the ranks, about his most private affairs. 

“All I know is that weʼre required to be by the end of the barracks by dawn,” he keeps going. He knows what theyʼre attempting to do, Flint hasnʼt been shy about it, but Alex keeps seeing flaws and holes in a plan that simply relies on Flintʼs ability to charm his way through a dragon’s lair when he doesn’t even know how to brandish a sword. 

Alex has been to war, heʼs sacrificed so much, and yet he isn’t the one given the chance to save a princess and become the next consort prince. Not that he wants to — heʼs long ago made peace with the fact that he will never have such a happy ending — but his fate is to end up being a hermit somewhere deep in the woods. He would like some company, but heʼs aware that his choice for company is, at least, frowned upon, when it isn’t straight away condemned to death. 

“I’ll polish my armor,” the Cameron guy says, voice on edge. Alex nods. “It seems like weʼll need all the help we can gather. This dragon is vindictive.” 

Alex is aware of that. Several princes and nobles have lost their lives and their pride trying to get past an overzealous dragon who wouldnʼt let go of its prize. Somewhere deep inside, he wishes thatʼd be his ending, too — engulfed in flames but heroic, at least. Not the burden he is for his father, who doesn’t miss a chance to remind him about how useless he is because he doesn’t feel things the right way. 

When he finally retires to his tent, a privilege since no Manes would want him tarnishing their men, Alex reflects on the fact that no one in his family has turned him in. They all know about his tendencies — about how he prefers to stare at the men instead of at the women, about how he despises violence and everything it entails — and it could have been easy for them to send him to the Kingʼs Guard for an execution. He isn’t sure why that hasnʼt happened yet, although he has the inkling that it has a lot to do with the fact that he is, surprisingly, really good at strategy during war. Heʼs helped in the Kingʼs battles against neighboring kingdoms, and he suspects his fatherʼs using that for his benefit. 

Alex doesn’t mind, so long as it keeps him from having to suffer from yet another Manes lesson on how to be a man, since they usually involve some kind of physical torture he is sure he canʼt endure any longer, not with being a cripple these days. 

He taps on his fake leg, relishing in the sound. Heʼs heard stories about criminals and bandits with the same kind of injuries, but he isn’t an outlaw. Heʼs lucky enough to be a war hero, granting him some sort of trust in the higher ranks. 

Outside, the noise begins to dwindle enough for Alex to close his eyes and allow his heartbeat to slow down, sleep claiming him as it always does — scarcely and violently.

* * *

Things werenʼt going the way Flint had planned, and Alex knows that. As he ducks yet another round of fire coming from the higher part of the castle theyʼre trying to take by assault, Alex canʼt help but wonder if his older brother had even thought this plan through. 

He takes shelter beneath a pile of debris and waits for what feels like an eternity. The fire dies down a bit, the smoke in its wake dissolving around him, and he can finally see his brother lying on his back across the hall. They havenʼt even been able to get past the entrance, and the dragon has already caused too much damage to their ranks — Alex can see bodies scattered throughout the space, and with a heavy heart he scans the room searching for Kyle and that Cameron guy. He breathes out in relief when he sees them both, side by side, collapsed against one column at the far end of the hall, but alive and panting. He pays attention again to the stairs from where the dragonʼs fire had come out before, and when his gaze settles back onto the pair he realizes that Cameron has lost his regulation beret and is showing a long, blonde mane of locks that cascade down his back. 

_Oh_ , Alex thinks with a shock that comes off weaker than expected. _Definitely not a guy_. 

From the looks of it, Kyle must have known beforehand, if his attitude towards Cameron is any telling. Heʼs leaning over, placing one lock behind an ear, and whispering something as he rubs soothing circles over the definitely not enough protection covering Cameronʼs body. Alex files that information for later, since now he needs all his focus to stay alive and find the princess for Flint. 

After all, heʼs been sent along to fulfill this mission and allow Flint to enjoy the reward of betrothing royalty. 

He pushes his metallic visor down, only a slit open so he can see, and charges across the room when he thinks the dragon is taking a second to recharge its powers. Allegedly, Alex doesn’t know a thing about a dragons — Harlanʼs quest had been resolving three riddles that Alex had managed to understand in record time, gaining Princess Marileneʼs hand for his brother; Gregory had just needed to show his bravery by surviving a whole month in the woods, and Alex’s skills from the war had come in handy when helping his brother earning Princess Ilianaʼs hand. Flintʼs was supposed to be the easiest one — go up the tower, defeat a dragon, win Princess Isobelʼs heart and go back home so Alex could wallow in self-pity at being the only one left with their father. 

But Flint is definitely not cut like Harlan or Gregory, and Alex finds himself rushing up the stairs by the end of the room, leaving his brother behind; he hears rustling at his back, and with a quick glance he realizes itʼs Kyle and Cameron — Alex knows he needs to ask for her real name, even if she will never earn credit for her actions in combat given she’s a woman — so he steers himself and charges. 

There’s no dragon by the end of the steps. In fact, there’s nothing up there. Alex looks around through the last swirls of smoke, and he swears he sees something moving across the corridor. He collides against the stony wall to catch his breath, taking his helmet off and allowing it to hit the floor with a loud clanking sound. Thatʼs where Kyle finds him. 

“Where has it gone?” he asks, Cameron in tow. Alex can now see rivulets of green in her clear eyes, she’s so close. 

“You lied to me,” he says instead of answering. “You could have trusted me.” 

“I don’t trust anybody, Sir Alexander,” she says gracefully. Alex groans. 

“ _He_ told you,” he accuses, his head hitting the stones. 

“The resemblance is striking, Sir,” she keeps going, shaking her head. “But donʼt fret, no one else has noticed.” 

“Just like they havenʼt noticed you arenʼt a man?” he quips back, pushing off the wall. “I donʼt care, as long as youʼre good at what you do. It takes some guts to come all the way to a dragon’s lair to fight.” 

Cameron smiles, but it looks more like a grimace. “My sister disappeared five years ago near this place,” she explains. “I just want to find her.” 

Alex nods. “You want your sister back and I want to find Princess Isobel for Flint. Iʼm not aware of what youʼre looking for here, Kyle, but you better be ready to fight.” 

Kyle brandishes his sword, eliciting a laugh out of Alex, who didn’t think he could laugh like that ever again. 

“One more thing before we go in,” he warns, grabbing the handle of his sword forcefully. “My nameʼs Alex. Cut off that _sir_ nonsense.” 

Cameron nods and follows them through the corridor.

* * *

They follow the smoke throughout the halls until theyʼre panting and coughing and wheezing. Alex takes off his helmet at some point, too heavy to help him move quickly. Cameron and Kyle collapse on the floor next to him. 

There’s no sign of a dragon ahead of them. They have all seen the smoke, even some flames, but there’s not a trace of the creature behind it. Alex is beginning to think they all have lost their minds, when he sees movement once again by the end of the hall theyʼve reached this time. 

“There,” he hisses, getting flat on the floor and crawling toward that spot. Kyle and Cameron follow him tiredly — they have been running in circles for a long time, so long that Alex thinks Flint will definitely declare them dead and move on. 

When he rounds the corner as silently as possible, what he sees takes his breath away. 

There’s no smoke, no dragon fire, but the room is lit with several candles floating in thin air. Alex has to suppress a gasp, but Cameron isn’t that quiet and she takes in a shaky breath that could be heard across the kingdom. The space is filled with shelves of books, and rich carpets, and soft-looking chairs and couches Alex has never seen, not even in the Kingʼs castle. There’s a blonde woman standing in the middle of the room, her back to them, as she stirs the liquid inside a mug she’s holding with both her hands. 

“Welcome to my humble abode,” she says, not turning away. “Weʼve been waiting for you.” 

“Princess Isobel?” Alex asks tentatively, taking a step inside the room. He still fears the dragon might show up and fry him in the spot. “My nameʼs—” 

“Alex,” he hears softly at his left, from a shadowed part of the room, making him stop dead in his tracks. He looks over briefly at Kyle, whoʼs staring agape at everything in the room, as several people begin to show up seemingly out of nowhere. 

Alex doesn’t heed any attention to them, as heʼs drawn to the voice thatʼs spoken his name so easily as a prayer. He steps aside, following the voice and he turns his back to the room, his eyes adjusting to the lack of light ahead. 

“Alex,” he hears again. He knows that voice, he’s been hearing it in his dreams for over a decade now, but he can’t be hearing it _now_. He must be hallucinating. Yet, he gets closer to the source of the sound, somewhere deep in the shadows that are cast around the room.

He catches a glimpse of honey and amber between curls that rest on top of a too pale forehead, and Alex knows he’s done. 

He promptly forgets about his quest to save Princess Isobel for Flint, about Kyle and Cameron being a woman instead of the brave _male_ warrior Alex had thought her to be. He forgets about the dragon that is now nowhere to be seen. He forgets about his family, about his father, about the King who’s going to be very disappointed in him if he doesn’t live up to the Manes legacy and give up something more than his leg for the Kingdom.

He just thinks about threading his fingers through the curls that are now peeking out from the shadows, followed by a full body that Alex knows by heart, even so many years later. He knows every curve of that skin, the way it flushes when it’s touched in all the right places; he knows how it feels under his fingertips, how it tastes underneath his tongue, how that body shivers while being lavished and bitten and marked. He knows because it’s been the food for his soul for the past ten years, every night when he couldn’t sleep.

“Michael,” he whispers when the other man fully makes it out of the shadows, one hand stretched out, the other hidden behind his back as though he’s ashamed of it. Alex _knows_ he’s ashamed of it. “You’re—you’re alive? What are you doing here?”

“There’s a lot I have to tell you about,” Michael explains, but Alex would very much rather he stopped talking. 

He needs to touch Michael, make sure he’s real, he’s actually _alive_ , when the last time they saw each other Alex was being dragged out of the Royal Stables, completely covered in blood, while his father spewed some nonsense about him finally meeting his destiny. Michael had been left behind, bleeding out on the filthy soil of a place where only horses were allowed to stand, beaten to unconsciousness because he’d just been _human_.

Alex will never forgive himself for leaving him behind, for abiding by his father’s rules, for never going back to Michael and searching for him.

“Later,” he manages to whisper, shaking his head, as he feels his eyes welling up. _Too much for a Manes man_ , he thinks to himself. But Manes men aren’t allowed to even feel, the idea of being warriors too etched in their minds to even think they could be something different, something else, something _better_. But Alex never was like the rest of his brothers — he’s always known he was different, and he’s always been punished for being different.

But different brought him to Michael once, and his inability to stay on the sidelines and see Flint fail his quest to become a respectable man in their father’s eyes has brought him to this castle. Different has helped him find his way to Michael again, even if he doesn’t understand how the fates have played that particular card out.

Later, he will learn that Michael found his way back to his family once he got out of the Royal Stables, hanging by a thread and pleading for his life. Alex will learn that Isobel has a twin, Max, who’s been searching for Michael for their whole lives — for the long lost prince who was taken from a remote King’s side when he was just a little baby, sold for pennies and abused his whole life — before coming back to their kingdom and claiming the throne that was his by right. He will learn that Isobel made up the story about the dragon guarding her so they would all be left alone when she came of age to marry; a dragon that has never existed, since it’s a trap of fire and smoke created by Queen Liz, Max’s wife. 

Alex will learn that Cameron’s sister, Charlie, got lost in the woods several years before and was found by Isobel while wandering around, unconscious and injured. She’d taken Charlie in, cured her and given her a purpose — a way to earn a living by helping others within the castle’s limits, where lost people from different kingdoms showed up periodically searching for a way to end their misery. Isobel and Michael, along with Charlie and Rosa, Queen Liz’s older sister, had set up a system to help people while remaining in the shadows.

Alex will learn later that Michael had seen him with the other soldiers by the tents outside the castle, getting ready for a fight. He will learn that Michael had convinced Isobel to trick everyone inside the castle and then make it look like Alex and whoever came up with him were dead, so no one would come up looking for them.

Alex will learn lots of things later on, but right now he just needs to throw himself into Michael’s eager arms, now that his left hand is back in front of his body, and get lost in the scent that surrounds him — sandalwood, fire, smoke and something that’s distinctly Michael, something that has never left Alex’s memories, not even for a single time.

He just relishes in the feeling of having those curls between his fingers, falling like a cascade over his skin. He takes a step backwards to watch Michael’s face, lit by the firepit in the middle of the room, ignoring the sounds and the cooing coming from the general direction of Princess Isobel and Kyle. All he can see in those honey-colored eyes — those eyes that have haunted him ever since that first day he saw Michael brushing one of the King’s finest horses — is a love that runs so deep, a love that he never thought he’d be able to feel ever again. A love that transcends time and space, that’s survived hell and that’s come back stronger.

Alex smiles softly and leans in at the same time as Michael leans forward, and they both get lost in a kiss that’s been ten years in the making.


End file.
